The critical approach of mestçizade's quran interpretation in his book 'al-mi'yar lima fi tafsiri al-qadi min al-aghyar': A study of surahs Al-Fatiha, Al-Baqarah, and Al ʿİmrān.

The science of Quranic exegesis (Tafsir) has gone through various stages, particularly in the 7th century AH, which saw the emergence of al-Baydawi's interpretation. This was followed by a period of widespread commentaries on the exegesis for various scientific purposes. These commentaries continued to be authored until the early 13th century AH. Among these commentaries and works that focused on criticism and caught our attention is the annotation by Abdullah Mestcizade al-Hanafi al-Maturidi, a scholar of theology, exegete, independent thinker, author, and teacher in the most famous schools of Edirne and Istanbul. Towards the end of his life, he was appointed to the position of Anatolian Kazasker (Chief Military Judge of Anatolia), and he passed away in the year 1150 AH / 1737 CE.This thesis combines a historical presentation of the development of criticism in Quranic exegesis and mentions the exegesis annotations authored during Mestcizade's era, while focusing on the critical approaches applied by Mestcizade in his book. We selected eighty examples from over three hundred instances in the book Al-Mi'yar, analyzing most of these examples and comparing them with other exegesis books. We generally agree with Mestcizade 's opinions while occasionally correcting some of them. The thesis concludes by outlining the critical rules employed by the Sheikh in his book.Our thesis consisted of an introduction, two chapters, and a conclusion. In the introduction, we outlined the research methodology, objectives, problems, limitations, and difficulties. In the first chapter, we introduced Abdullah Mestcizade and his twenty-two works, and we introduced his book "Al-Mi'yar" (an annotation on al-Baydawi's exegesis) and described its four manuscript copies. We detailed his style, which is similar to the annotation methodology based on selecting certain verses and issues from al-Baydawi's interpretation, focusing on hadith authentication, elaborating on some theological topics, citing poetry, and paying attention to correcting and comparing al-Baydawi's copies and quoting from some lost exegeses. The second chapter, divided into three sections, discussed in the first section the concept of criticism in exegesis, its importance, history, development, and its four pillars. In the second section, we discussed the characteristics of criticism in the book "Al-Mi'yar," such as the motives for criticism, stages of criticism, its qualities, pillars, and topics. In the third section, we detailed Mestcizade 's critical applications and discovered that they shared common elements, so we divided them into six axes: 1- Sentence and exegetical phrasing critiques. 2- Methodology and exegetical meanings critiques. 3- Theological and philosophical exegesis critiques. 4- Quranic Sciences critiques. 5- Israelite narratives critiques. 6- General critiques. After the six axes, we moved to the fourth section where we attempted to deduce Mestcizade's rules of criticism, a large part of which was similar to the rules of the science of exegesis.Among the conclusions reached by the research: Al-Baydawi's "Anwar al-Tanzil" exegesis represented a unique model in the history of Islamic interpretation, dominating the scholarly and educational scene for many centuries. It was distinguished by combining various Islamic sciences, with two innovative elements: integrating philosophical sciences with theology, and employing literary and rhetorical styles in formulating the interpretation. It became a highly concentrated text, with a strong style and difficult phrasing. It condensed the material of three scientific and literary exegeses into his interpretation after refining and summarizing them. However, he couldn't fully purify all of Al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilite ideas, which encouraged some scholars to annotate, explain, and criticize it. Al-Baydawi, may Allah have mercy on him, lacked the rules of hadith science in his interpretation as he mixed weak narrations with authentic ones. This added another critical element for Mestcizade to address in his book, which he authored for several different motives, including: 1. Comparing Al-Baydawi's interpretation with Al-Zamakhshari's 2. Adding new innovations and edits 3. Correcting Al-Baydawi's mistakes 4. Criticizing Al-Baydawi's adherence to the Mu'tazilite school 5. Criticizing Al-Baydawi's reliance on philosophers' statements.In conclusion, through studying Mestcizade's general style and his critical methodology in the book "Al-Mi'yar" specifically, and comparing it with other annotations, we can say: The annotations in Quranic exegesis were a healthy scholarly phenomenon and were not merely simple explanations or meaningless superficial writings. Rather, they resulted from scholars' interest in refining, explaining, and critiquing exegesis, as well as clarifying its concepts and terminology, and authenticating its hadiths. These annotations represented a stage in the development of critical analysis in the field of Quranic exegesis during a certain period of time.